少儿英语：英语故事抱薪救火.docx

少儿英语：英语故事抱薪救火战国末期，秦国向魏国接连发动大规模的进攻，魏国无力反抗，大片土地 都被秦军占据了。到公元前273年，秦国又一次向魏国出兵，势头空前猛 烈。The king of the State of Wei summoned his officials,and asked with a worried look if anyone could propose a way to defeat the Qin army. After years of chaos caused by the wars, the officials trembled when fighting was mentioned, and no one dared to speak ofresistance. At the critical moment when a large enemy force was bearing down upon the border, most of the offinials persuaded the king to sue for peace, at the cost of giving away to the State of Qin the large area of land north of the Huanghe River and south of the Taihang Mountain. 魏王把大臣们召来，愁眉苦脸地问大家有没有使秦国退兵的方法。大臣们由 于经过多年的战乱，提起打仗就吓得哆嗦，谁也不敢谈“反抗”二字。在这 大兵压境的危险时刻，多数大臣都劝魏王，用黄河以北和太行山以南的大片 土地为代价，向秦王求和。However Su Dai, a counsellor, did not agree. He hurried up to the king and said： "Your Majesty, they don” t think about the interests of the country at all. It is just because they are cowardly and afraidof death that they ask you to sue for peace by betraying the country.Of course you can temperarily satisfy the ambition of the king of the State of Qin is insatiably greedy. It will never stop assaulting us until our land is totally given away.谋士苏代听了这些话，很不以为然，忙上前对魏王说：“大王，他们是由 于自己胆小怕死，才让您去卖国求和，根本不为国家着想。您想，把大片 土地割让给秦国虽然临时满意了秦王的野心，但秦国的欲望是无止境的， 只要魏国的土地没割完，秦军就不会停顿进攻我们。”“Once there was a man whose house was on fire. People told him to put out the fire with water, but he would not listen. Instead, he carried a faggot to put out the fire, only to make the fire fiercer. That was because he didn“ t know that, instead of putting out the fire, faggots could only make it burning more vigorously. Isn t it equivalent to carrying faggots to put out a fire if you agree to sue for peace at the cost of the land of the State of Wei?”说到这里，苏代讲了一个故事：从前有一个人，他的房子起火了，别 人劝他快用水去浇灭大火，但他不听，偏抱起一捆柴草去救火，是由于他不 懂得柴草不但不能灭火反而能助长火势的道理。大王若同意拿着魏国土地去 求和，不就等于抱着柴草救火吗?”Though Su Dai” s argument was very convincing, the king acceptedthe suggestion of those officials and gave away to the State of Qin a large area of the land of the State of Wei. For the king of the State of Wei was cowardly and only cared for peace at the moment. As might be expected, the Qin army assaulted the State of Wei on a large scale in 225 B. C. , surrounding the capital city Daliang and flooding it by digging open the dykesof the Huanghe River. The State of Wei was finally destroyed by the State of Qin. This story appears in the Historical Records Written by Sima Qian.尽管苏代讲得头头是道，但是胆小的魏王只顾眼前的太平，还是依大臣们 的意见把魏国大片土地割让给秦国。到公元225年，果真秦军又向魏国大 举进攻，包围了国都大梁，掘开黄河大堤让洪水沉没了大梁城，魏国最终 被秦国灭掉了。moral寓意The set phrase “carrying faggots to put out a fire “is used to mean adopting a wrong method to save a situation and ending up by making it worse.成语“抱薪救火”比方用错误的方法去毁灭祸患，结果反而使祸患扩大。